Epson today announced two new Artisan multifunction devices, the Artisan 710 and Artisan 810. Both Artisan devices feature six-color ink-jet printers that are designed for creative projects.

Artisan 710

Like its predecessor, the Artisan 700, the Artisan 710 has an ink-jet print, flatbed scanner, and copier functions, all geared to address the needs of users whose work with graphic-intensive documents.

Epson Artisan 710

The ink-jet printer uses six colors, all in individual ink cartridges. According to Epson, the Artisan 710 has a draft print speed of 38 pages per minute (ppm) when using black only or when printing in color. Epson states the “laser-quality” print speed as 9.5 ppm for black only, and 9 ppm for color. Epson also says that a 4-by-6 color photo can print in 10 seconds.

The Artisan 710’s 48-bit scanner has an optical resolution of 2,400 dpi. The scanner also acts as a color or black and white copier.

The Artisan 710 can connect to a Mac via USB 2.0, or to a network with either the Ethernet port or Wi-Fi. You can also plug your camera’s memory cards into the device using the built-in memory card slot. The PictBridge port can be used to print directly from your camera to the Artisan 710.

The device has a 2.5-inch LCD, and includes several functions for printing and scanner directly to the device itself, without using a Mac. The built-in Auto Photo Correction adjusts the color of photos, and you can also remove red eye, restore color to faded photos, create personalized notebook paper and coloring book pages, and more.

The Artisan is priced at $180 and will be available this month.

Artisan 810

Epson rates the Artisan 810’s printer speed along the same lines as the Artisan 710. The Artisan 810 also performs the same in-device print and scan functions, and has the same connectivity features and memory card slot as the Artisan 710.

The first major difference between the Artisan 810 and the Artisan 710 is the Artisan 800’s 7.8-inch touch panel and 3.5-inch LCD, which allows for better control of the in-device print and scan functions.

The second major difference is with the scanner. The Artisan 810 has a 48-bit color scanner that supports an optical resolution of 4,800 dpi.

The last major difference is the Artisan 810's built-in 30-page automatic document feeder, which can be used to copy of scan multi-paged documents. The Artisan 710 does not have a built-in automatic document feeder.

The Artisan 810 will be available this month for $300.

[Roman Loyola is a Macworld senior editor.]

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